Tors edge Bucs, take sole possession of first in district

SULPHUR — It took nine innings but Sulphur finally produced a big hit, with Logan Louviere singling to left to score Kale
Breaux with the game’s lone run in the Tors’ 1-0 win over Barbe Tuesday at McMurry Park.

Sulphur (19-6, 4-0) took sole possession of first place in District 3-5A and ended the Bucs’ 14-game winning streak.

The Bucs (23-3, 3-1) squandered several
chances to push a run across, getting a runner in scoring position with
less than
two outs in the third, sixth and eighth innings. Each time the
Tors wiggled out of trouble, throwing a runner out at the plate
in the sixth inning and escaping in the eighth inning after Barbe
put a runner on third with one out.

Barbe starter Sloan Dieter (5-1) went the distance, allowing four singles and striking out nine.

Breaux singled up the middle with one out in the ninth, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Brooks Morse and scored
when Louviere drilled a single between the shortstop and third baseman.

“For four guys to come in and do what
they did and keep that team to no runs in nine innings, I can’t say
enough about those
guys,” said Sulphur head coach Jason Trahan. “Doing that kept us
in the ballgame. It was an excellent job by all four. They
are clutch players. They keep doing it time and time again. The
pressure does not bother the pitchers. It seems like Kale
gets better when there are runners in scoring position. We kept
making the plays.”

While the Tors hurlers were escaping trouble, the Sulphur batters were having a hard time starting any against Dieter.

“We got the one-out single from Kale,
then I go ask Brooks to bunt him over and give Louviere a chance to win
it,” Trahan
said. “Brooks just said, ‘OK.’ He did it unselfishly and that gave
us a chance to win. Logan is our three-hole hitter, what
more could you want? With the way they had been giving us the
six-hole there, he was the perfect guy to have up.”

Barbe head coach Glenn Cecchini said the Bucs paid for not delivering the big hit.

“We missed scoring opportunities and
Sulphur played a real good game,” Cecchini said. “We had six hits.
Against a good team
with good pitching you have to capitalize on those opportunities.
When you don’t score, you don’t win. I thought Sloan pitched
a great game, pitched his heart out. Their guy did a good job and
got a big, clutch hit. We’re still 23-3, still in good shape.
It is a tough district; there are no gimmies.”